US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he doubts Israel will attack Rafah before new talks next week in Washington, which has raised concerns over an assault on the packed Gaza city, AFP reports.

Blinken said that Israel has not communicated a date for an operation to the United States and that an Israeli delegation would visit Washington next week to hear US concerns.

“I don’t anticipate any actions being taken before those talks; for that matter, I don’t see anything imminent,” Blinken told a joint news conference with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

The United States will again make the case that major military operations in Rafah would be “extremely dangerous for civilians who have been caught in harm’s way”, Blinken said.